Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Typesense VS Google Custom Search Engine

Compare Typesense VS Google Custom Search Engine and see what are their differences

Typesense logo Typesense

Typo tolerant, delightfully simple, open source search 🔍

Google Custom Search Engine logo Google Custom Search Engine

Google Custom Search is a platform provided by Google that allows web developers to feature specialized information in web searches, refine and categorize queries and create customized search engines, based on Google Search.
  • Typesense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-07
  • Google Custom Search Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-31

Typesense features and specs

  • High Performance
    Typesense offers highly optimized search capabilities with fast response times, ensuring quick retrieval of search results even with large datasets.
  • Easy to Set Up
    Typesense is user-friendly and can be quickly set up using a simple configuration, making it accessible for developers who need a straightforward search solution.
  • Real-Time Indexing
    Typesense supports real-time indexing, meaning new data or updates to existing data are searchable almost immediately without significant delay.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source solution, Typesense provides transparency, community support, and the possibility for customization to meet specific needs.
  • Typo Tolerance
    Typesense’s built-in typo tolerance allows for forgiving spell-check and correction, enhancing user experience by returning relevant results despite minor typing errors.
  • Faceted Search
    The platform supports faceted search, which lets users narrow down search results through various categories, improving relevancy and user navigation.

Possible disadvantages of Typesense

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Compared to some competitors, Typesense offers fewer advanced search features like natural language processing or machine learning-based relevance tuning.
  • Community Support
    Being relatively newer, Typesense has a smaller user base and community support compared to established search engines like ElasticSearch or Solr.
  • Documentation
    Some users may find Typesense’s documentation to be less comprehensive, potentially leading to a steeper learning curve for complex use-cases.
  • Scalability
    While Typesense is scalable, enterprise-level users managing extremely large datasets might find it less robust compared to established solutions that have been battle-tested in large-scale environments.
  • Ecosystem Integration
    The integration ecosystem is still developing, which means fewer out-of-the-box integrations with other popular tools and platforms compared to older search engines.

Google Custom Search Engine features and specs

  • Easy Integration
    Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) allows for seamless integration into your website with just a few lines of code, providing a hassle-free way to add powerful search capabilities.
  • Customizable Appearance
    The appearance of the search engine can be customized to match the aesthetics of your website, ensuring a consistent user experience.
  • Google Search Algorithms
    CSE leverages Google's advanced search algorithms, which means it provides highly relevant search results and reliable performance.
  • Filtering and Restrictions
    You can specify certain sites or pages to be included or excluded from the search results, allowing for tailored control over search parameters.
  • Sponsored Links Integration
    By default, the search results can include relevant ads, providing potential revenue opportunities without additional work.
  • Multiple Sites Search
    CSE allows you to create search engines that span multiple websites or subsets of sites, enhancing the search scope as needed.

Possible disadvantages of Google Custom Search Engine

  • Advertising
    The free version of CSE displays ads alongside the search results, which could be distracting or undesirable for some users and website owners.
  • Limited Customization for Free Version
    The level of search result customization is limited unless you opt for the paid version, which may incur additional costs.
  • Dependency on Google Infrastructure
    Using CSE ties your site's search functionality to Google's infrastructure, which could be a concern for those seeking more independent or diversified solutions.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Using Google services for search means that information about users' search behavior can be collected by Google, potentially raising privacy issues.
  • Data Limitations
    The specificity and depth of data accessibility are limited compared to integrating a custom-built search engine with full database access.
  • Learning Curve
    Configuring and optimizing CSE, especially for more complex requirements, may require some learning and adjustment time from the developer's side.

Typesense videos

Getting started with Typesense

Google Custom Search Engine videos

Create a Google Custom Search Engine To Monetize Your Site

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Typesense and Google Custom Search Engine)
Custom Search Engine
81 81%
19% 19
Custom Search
83 83%
17% 17
Search Engine
95 95%
5% 5
Search API
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Typesense and Google Custom Search Engine

Typesense Reviews

Best Elasticsearch alternatives for search
A plug for yours truly! At Relevance AI, we’re building an Elasticsearch alternative that is very different to alternatives like Algolia and Typesense. Relevance AI search is an instant search API that understands “semantics”.
Source: relevance.ai
5 Open-Source Search Engines For your Website
Typesense is a fast, typo-tolerant search engine for building delightful search experiences. It claims that it is an Easier-to-Use ElasticSearch Alternative & an Open Source Algolia Alternative.
Source: vishnuch.tech
Recommendations for Poor Man's ElasticSearch on AWS?
Oh hey! I'm one of the co-founders of Typesense. Delighted to stumble on a mention of Typesense on Indiehackers. Long time lurker, first time poster :)

Google Custom Search Engine Reviews

We have no reviews of Google Custom Search Engine yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Typesense should be more popular than Google Custom Search Engine. It has been mentiond 58 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Typesense mentions (58)

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Google Custom Search Engine mentions (22)

  • Website Search Hurts My Feelings
    There are actually plenty of non-ES products that are way easier to integrate and tune (and get better results with less effort). - Typesense (https://github.com/typesense/typesense). - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • How To De-index Your Docs From Google (And Then Fix It)
    One other important detail — there is an in-site search for the C7 docs. Notably, it is built on a programmable Google search engine. Basically, that means that the search functionality on the site is powered by Google. A search query entered into the C7 docs search box gives basically the same results as entering the query on google.com and filtering by site:docs.camunda.org. Again, "foreshadowing....". - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Swirl: An open-source search engine with LLMs and ChatGPT to provide all the answers you need 🌌
    Using the Galaxy UI, knowledge workers can systematically review the best results from all configured services including Apache Solr, ChatGPT, Elastic, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, plus generic HTTP/GET/POST with configurations for premium services like Google's Programmable Search Engine, Miro and Northern Light Research. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Mullvad Leta
    We used this for a project: https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/about/ before we moved to Elastic Search. It has a REST API (and can be used to query the internet also). - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Tutorial: Create an AI agent that reads Wikipedia for you
    First, you need to create a programmable search engine for Wikipedia. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Typesense and Google Custom Search Engine, you can also consider the following products

Algolia - Algolia's Search API makes it easy to deliver a great search experience in your apps & websites. Algolia Search provides hosted full-text, numerical, faceted and geolocalized search.

Meilisearch - Ultra relevant, instant, and typo-tolerant full-text search API

ElasticSearch - Elasticsearch is an open source, distributed, RESTful search engine.

Swiftype - The simplest way to add search to your website or application. Sign up for free.

Apache Solr - Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on Lucene search library, with XML/HTTP and...

Vespa.ai - Store, search, rank and organize big data